MCS Accreditation

[OilBeDamned]

Hi Graeme,

I am happy to offer an insight into the process required to gain MCS accreditation.

Stage 1 - Product Training.

During the MCS inspection the assessor will look to see that you have been on an approved training course which covers the necessary elements within the MCS documents e.g. MIS3002 MCS guide to solar PV. The most common courses are NIC EIC, Logic, Bpec & the new and improved city and guilds 2399. The training will cover the requirements for mounting the panels, ensuring the roof is correctly sealed, connecting the inverters and completing the installation including informing the DNO and completing the G83 or G59 forms.

Stage 2 - you must have a quality management system that conforms to the standards outlined in the MIS001 Guide to MCS, this includes internal documents, external documents, forms and procedures. in the form of a document issue list. The assessor will spend around 70% of the day on this and will look to see that you have not only used it for an example installation but also that you fully understand it and can maintain the QMS going forward. This is the element that we offer and please feel free to contact one of our team to discuss this section further.

Stage 3 - Example Installation, you must use your experience in your chosen area i.e. electrician or heating engineer and the knowledge gaining during your product training alongside your management system to produce an example installation. This can be on your own property or a client’s house and once you are accredited will be full eligible for the FITS or RHI although only one installation can be completed prior to assessment.

Stage 4 - Assessment - The day would consist of around 70% on your QMS and 30% on the technology / example installation. They will look to see you have followed the procedures in your QMS and completed the installation in line with your training and experience. The assessor will take for granted that if you are qualified to do the work i.e. Part P and 17th edition you have the experience so will be more interested in the paper work. In 12 months’ time you will have your annual audit which will be conducted by a more technical inspector who will pick an installation at random to assess but will still be keen to see that you are maintaining your QMS.

I hope this helps and please keep the questions coming!

So to ensure I am reading it correctly the steps would be

1. Carry out appropriate Solar PV course
2. Set up or buy into a QMS/back office certification format
3. Complete sample install
4. Apply for assesment

Is this correct?

 

[Golfingdaz]

Morning guys,
Do you need to be NICEIC (or other) registered as a domestic installer or approved contractor for the MCS registration?
Regards

 

[Mark@Eco-Logic]

Hi Eco-Logic received our MCS accreditation last week. Great news 1 non conformity. However as members of easy mcs have you any templates which can be used to address the criteria for the Operation and Maintanence which is handed to a client. This encompasses the emergency shut down and operation of the system.

Anyone with any suggested references would be grateful accepted.

Mark

 

[imprints]

Hi MCS, We are currently looking to become MCS certified and have pretty much done most of the documentation, and have setup procedures, and quality management systems. We are in the process of creating handover documentation and wondered if there were any templates for the following requirements:

Procedures for verifying correct system operation
A checklist of what to do in case of a system failure
considerations for any future building works

And in terms of the warranty information, would we expect certificates from our product suppliers, or is it good enough to refer to stated warranties on websites and data sheets etc?

Thanks for your time,

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

So to ensure I am reading it correctly the steps would be

1. Carry out appropriate Solar PV course
2. Set up or buy into a QMS/back office certification format
3. Complete sample install
4. Apply for assesment

Is this correct?

Sorry for the delayed reponse, you are correct this is the process for gaining accreditation, Easy MCS offer both the training course and QMS element and can provide discount for the assesment.

please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Morning guys,
Do you need to be NICEIC (or other) registered as a domestic installer or approved contractor for the MCS registration?
Regards

Hi Golfingdaz,

MCS can be gained without the need for the company to be a memeber of a CPS (competant person scheme) for Part P e.g NIC EIC, although you will need to nominate a qualified supervisor to sign of your work under building control and this person would need to be a memeber of a CPS.

alternatively you can call building control in to sign of the installation although this will cost significantly more than an electrical contractor.

i hope this helps but feel free to contact Easy MCS if you need further assistance.

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Hi Eco-Logic received our MCS accreditation last week. Great news 1 non conformity. However as members of easy mcs have you any templates which can be used to address the criteria for the Operation and Maintanence which is handed to a client. This encompasses the emergency shut down and operation of the system.

Anyone with any suggested references would be grateful accepted.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Glad to hear you passed your MCS accreditation and i hope you found the QMS and mentoring support a usefull service. Within our system you will find a commissioing and de-commissioing procedure which should cover the requirements for this section.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Hi MCS, We are currently looking to become MCS certified and have pretty much done most of the documentation, and have setup procedures, and quality management systems. We are in the process of creating handover documentation and wondered if there were any templates for the following requirements:

Procedures for verifying correct system operation
A checklist of what to do in case of a system failure
considerations for any future building works

And in terms of the warranty information, would we expect certificates from our product suppliers, or is it good enough to refer to stated warranties on websites and data sheets etc?

Thanks for your time,

Hi Imprints,

unfortunetely we can only advise on our own documents as we produce the entire quality management system, if you find that your management system needs any additional work we will be happy to provide you with one of our systems.

 

[imprints]

Hi Imprints,

unfortunetely we can only advise on our own documents as we produce the entire quality management system, if you find that your management system needs any additional work we will be happy to provide you with one of our systems.

Hi, thanks for replying. Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm particularly interested in help with the handover documentation. Are you saying that we need to buy a package of some sort in order to get those (related) templates?

If so, how much?

And what about my question regarding the warranty information provided to customers. Is this included as part of a documentation package, or do you refer specifically to Product supplier information/docs (i.e. website, invoices, installation manuals etc)

Thank you very much for your help

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Hi, thanks for replying. Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm particularly interested in help with the handover documentation. Are you saying that we need to buy a package of some sort in order to get those (related) templates?

If so, how much?

And what about my question regarding the warranty information provided to customers. Is this included as part of a documentation package, or do you refer specifically to Product supplier information/docs (i.e. website, invoices, installation manuals etc)

Thank you very much for your help

Hi Imprints,

Easy MCS produce bespoke management systems for companies looking to gain MCS accreditation along with a mentor who will train you on the documents to ensure you are fully aware of how to use and maintain yoru system. Within our pack you will find some hand over documents although as you have mentioned the majority of the hand over is installation specific and contains relevant schematics, manuals and literature for that installation.

Thw warranty information is once again job specific as it relates to the products you supply and the warranty you give on your installation work.

I am sorry i cant be more specific as this falls out side of the QMS requirements.

 

[imprints]

Hi Imprints,

Easy MCS produce bespoke management systems for companies looking to gain MCS accreditation along with a mentor who will train you on the documents to ensure you are fully aware of how to use and maintain yoru system. Within our pack you will find some hand over documents although as you have mentioned the majority of the hand over is installation specific and contains relevant schematics, manuals and literature for that installation.

Thw warranty information is once again job specific as it relates to the products you supply and the warranty you give on your installation work.

I am sorry i cant be more specific as this falls out side of the QMS requirements.

Ok, no problem. Thanks for your help. Regards.

 

[BelHR]

Informative and very helpful

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Informative and very helpful

Please feel free to call our office on 0844 414 60 41 if you need any further assistance.

 

[avonsolarltd]

hi there
where can i find a copy of the solar irradiance map and also the sap calcs table H2 and H3.
apart from bre sap 2009 as i cant fing it in there
cheers

phil

 

[leroy]

Hi all, We had our assessment yesterday and came out with a few NCR's. Can anyone recommend a good free version software package that produces a design plan? We were also picked up on not having a structural report, did others have this issue? Any recommendations? Money is tight so looking for anything thats free/cheap for the time being until we get a flow of work coming through.

 

[imprints]

Hi all, We had our assessment yesterday and came out with a few NCR's. Can anyone recommend a good free version software package that produces a design plan? We were also picked up on not having a structural report, did others have this issue? Any recommendations? Money is tight so looking for anything thats free/cheap for the time being until we get a flow of work coming through.

Hi, we had the same issue with the structural considerations. We got a structural engineer to write us a letter for £50 declaring the safeness of the roof/house with the added weight. (plus wind/load considerations). We were told that we could have passed this bit (for free) by reading up on BRE 489 & BRE 495 documents (that are available for free online) and to do our own calculations. The problem was we didn't have the time, also the fact that although you can do your own calculations, there are no figures (that we could find) that shows what to compare our figures with. (to say whether we were ok or not). In terms of passing the MCS, they just want to know that we have taken wind/load into consideration, and as long as there seems to be some justification for our actions, this kinda helps them to remove liability from themselves. Hope that helps. Regards.

 

[leroy]

Hi, we had the same issue with the structural considerations. We got a structural engineer to write us a letter for £50 declaring the safeness of the roof/house with the added weight. (plus wind/load considerations). We were told that we could have passed this bit (for free) by reading up on BRE 489 & BRE 495 documents (that are available for free online) and to do our own calculations. The problem was we didn't have the time, also the fact that although you can do your own calculations, there are no figures (that we could find) that shows what to compare our figures with. (to say whether we were ok or not). In terms of passing the MCS, they just want to know that we have taken wind/load into consideration, and as long as there seems to be some justification for our actions, this kinda helps them to remove liability from themselves. Hope that helps. Regards.

Cheers for that, did the engineer come out to site, or did you just provide him with the site survey?

 

[imprints]

Cheers for that, did the engineer come out to site, or did you just provide him with the site survey?

It was all done remotely

(i know, the cheek of it!)

 

[leroy]

It was all done remotely

(i know, the cheek of it!)

Sounds like I'm in the wrong industry!

Any chance you could send me the details of the guy?

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

hi there
where can i find a copy of the solar irradiance map and also the sap calcs table H2 and H3.
apart from bre sap 2009 as i cant fing it in there
cheers

phil

Hi Phil,

This may be of use to you, seems to hold all the relevant certification.

Solar Map UK insolation sunshine solar panels

Regards

Easy MCS Ltd